Document handling system



Aug. 16, 1966 L. G. SIMJIAN DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Filed Nov- 21. 1963LUTHER G. SIMILVEN BY ATTORNEY /g' AGENT wNmN 4; o i 2 a, Q

United States Patent 3,266,626 DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Luther G.Simjian, Greenwich, Conn, assignor to Universal Match Corporation, St.Louis, Mo., a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 21, 1963, Ser. No.325,387 4 Claims. (Cl. 209'75) This invention relates to documenthandling systems, and particularly to a system for extracting documentsfrom sealed envelopes and for processing these documents.

The system of this invention is especially adapted to the handling ofdocuments of uniform size bearing information which may be visual, punchor magnetic coded and which may be read by a machine. An example of thisis the conventional proxy card. A proxy card is customarily sent to eachshareholder of a corporation, prior to the election of the board ofdirectors of the corporation, by the management backed slate ofnominees, and by any other nominees who may be soliciting theshareholders vote. It is assumed that the shareholder will notpersonally attend the election, and that if he does, he will probablynot revoke the proxy. The proxy card is customarily sent to theshareholder together with a return envelope by the corporations transferagent, normally a commercial bank, or by some other central agency inpossession of the mailing list of shareholders. The central agency mayact on behalf of many corporations, and at any given time may bereceiving proxy cards concerning'several different corporations. One orseveral proxy cards concerning the same or different corporations may beenclosed in a single return envelope. The central agency must open eachsealed envelope, separate the cards from the envelope, sort the cardsaccording to the corporation concerned, and finally tabulate the sortedcards.

The number of proxies per corporation can be quite large. According to a1962 survey, of the approximately 1,300 corporations listed on the NewYork Stock Exchange and having more than 25,000 shareholders, theaverage number of shareholders was 80,000; and of those having lessthan'25,000 shareholders, the average number of shareholders was 8,000.The average number of shareholders of all such corporations was 22,000.It is estimatedthat 66 to 70% of all proxy cards are returned 'to thetransfer agent, accounting for 80 to 90% of the outstanding shares ofthe average corporation.

The first two operations of opening the sealed envelope, and separatingthe cards from the envelope are customarily performed manually and arevery time consuming.-

The sealed envelopes are manually arranged singly or in relatively smallgroups in the feed means of a conventional envelope opening device whichshears off a sliver of one edge of each envelope. Each sheared envelopeis then individually handled for the manual extraction of the proxycards from the envelope. The cards are then manually oriented andmanually arranged in the feed means of a conventional card sorter andtabulator, which reads the visual, punch or magnetic indicia to sort andtahulate the cards.

An object of this invention, therefore, is the provision of a system forreceiving and for opening sealed envelopes, and for processing thedocuments contained therein.

Another object is the provision of a system for automatically openingsealed envelopes, and for removing and sorting the contents of theenvelope.

A feature of this invention is the provision of a fully automatic systemfor handling sealed envelopes, each envelope containing at least adocument; including means for receiving a plurality of sealed envelopes;means for opening each sealed envelope and for separating the documentscontained therein from the envelope; means for orienting the documents;and means for sorting and tabulating the documents.

These and other objects and features of this invention will become moreapparent by reference to the following description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an example of an indicia bear-ing document which may be readby a conventional sorting and tabulating machine; and

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic view of a system embodying this invention forhandling documents such as shown in FIGURE 1 and initially received insealed envelopes.

Turning now to FIGURE 1, the indicia bearing document is shown as aproxy card 10. The card is of the conventional size for use in automaticdata processing equipment. Suitable verbiage may be printed on the firstface of the card for subscription by the shareholder. The card is shownhere as having visual indicia 12 identifying the corporation andnominees, which indicia may be read by a conventional sorting andtabulating machine. It will be apparent that the same data may comprisepunched holes or magnetic indicia. An additional indicium, here shown asphosphorescent stripe 14 is provided on the front face along the topedge of the card for providing a means whereby the proxy cards may berapidly distinguished from other documents, and also for providing aposition reference to the card which may be used for automaticallyorienting the card.

One embodiment of the document handling system is illustrated in FIGURE2. This systemmay be utilized by the transfer agent to fullyautomatically process the proxy card containing envelopes as they arereceived from the postal authorities. These envelopes have beensegregated from the ordinary mail addressed to the transfer agent. Thissegregation may be accomplished by the postal authorities in response tothe transfer agent giving these envelopes a unique code, such as aparticular box number.

The envelopes are delivered to a means 16 to receive a plurality ofsealed envelopes. This means includes a hopper 18 leading to ahorizontal stacking tray 20 where in each of the envelopes is stacked onone of its long edges. Suitable vibrator means (not shown) may beassociated with the hopper to assist this stacking of the envelopes.

A first feeding means 22 is coupled to the tray 20 to serially feed theenvelopes from the tray into a main path. This feeding means comprises aconventional multibelt and roller system.

Associated with the first feeding means 22 is a conventional metaldetection means 24 which is coupled to a deflection vane 26. The vane isnormally biased to permit the flow of envelopes along the main path.When the metal detection means 24 detects metal in an envelope passingthereby, it actuates the vane 26 to deflect that envelope out of themain path.

A second feeding means 28 is disposed adjacent the means 22, andcomprises a conventional multibelt and roller system. A conventionalthickness gage means 30 is associated with the second feeding means andis coupled to a deflection vane 32. The vane is normally biased topermit the flow of envelopes along the main path. When the thicknessgage means 30 detects an envelope of a greater than a preset thickness,it actuates the vane 32 to deflect that envelope out of the main path.

A third feeding means 34 is disposed adjacent the means 28, andcomprises a conventional multibelt and roller system. A first indiciumdetection means, such as a means 36 to detect a postage stamp orindicium is associated with the third feeding means 34. This means 36 isdisposed to detect a postage stamp or indicium on either face of theenvelope adjacent its lower long edge.

The means 36 is coupled to a deflection vane 38. This vane controls theflow of the envelopes to either an in verting feeding means 40 or anon-inverting feeding means 42. The inverting feeding means comprises aconventional twisted belt and roller system to rotate a passing envelope180 degrees about its long, or horizontal axis; such as is disclosed inUS. Patent No. 2,947,406, granted on August 2, 1960. The non-invertingfeeding means 42 comprises a conventional belt and roller system. Asecond indicium detection means 44 to sense a postage indicium isassociated with the inverting feeding means 40, and is disposed todetect a postage indicium on either face of the envelope adjacent itslower long edge. This means 44 is coupled to a deflection vane 46 whichis biased to normally permit the flow of envelopes fromthe means 40 to abuffer storage means 48. When the first detection means 36 detects apostage indicium adjacent the envelope lower edge it causes the vane 38to move so as to deflect this envelope to the non inverting feedingmeans 42, from whence it passes to the buffer storage means 48. When thefirst detection means 36 does not detect a postage indicium adjacent theenvelope lower edge, it causes the vane 38 to move so as to deflect thisenvelope to the inverting feeding means 40. After the envelope isinverted it is inspected by the second detection means 44. When thesecond detection means does not detect a postage indicium adjacent theenvelope lower edge it causes the vane 46 to move to deflect theenvelope from the main path; but if an indicium is detected, the vane isnot moved, and the envelope passes to the buffer storage means. Thebuffer storage means comprises a conventional hopper having means toreceive envelopes on edge and to stack them vertically, face up. Theenvelopes in the buffer storage hopper are now stacked with the sameface up. This orientation of the envelopes is desirable when an envelopeis used which has two plaited ends and an inner baffle panel, such as isdisclosed in my copending application S.N. 314,945, filed on October 9,1963, now Patent No. 3,187,986.

Associated with the buffer storage means 48 is a fourth feeding means 50comprising a conventional multibelt and roller system. The fourthfeeding means, upon demand, serially feeds envelopes to a means 52 forsevering the envelope and for separating the contained documents fromthe envelope. Such a means is disclosed in my copending application forUS. Letters Patent S.N. 315,016, filed October 9, 1963. This means 52includes a means 54 for entering an envelope and for severing the fouredges thereof; and a means 56 for receiving the severed envelope and thecontained documents as a stack and for serially feeding each item of thestack past a camera 58. The camera photographs both sides of each itemand thus provides a permanent record of each envelope and its contentsas received from the postal authorities.

Associated with the means 52 is a fifth feeding means 60 comprising aconventional multibelt and roller system for providing each itemreceived from the means 52 with a 90 rotation about its long axis.Associated with the fifth feeding means 60 are a front means 62 and arear means 64 for sensing an indicium such as the stripe 14 on the loweredge of each card. Associated in sequence with the fifth feeding means60 is a front deflection vane 66 and a rear deflection vane 68, aninverting feeding means 70 comprising a conventional twisted multibeltand roller system, a sixth feeding means 72, a front means 74 and a rearmeans 76 for sensing the stripe 14 on the lower edge of each card, afront deflection vane 78 and a rear deflection vane 80, and aconventional collection tray 82.

The vanes 66, 68, 78, and 80 are normally biased to pass an item alongthe main path to the collection tray 82. If none of the stripe detectingmeans 62, 64, 74 and 76 detects a stripe, the deflection vanes are notmoved, and the item passes to the collection tray 82. Such an item isnot a proper card, since it has not a strip on either face adjacenteither long edge. These items are portions of the severed envelopes, orextraneous contained matter, and may be disposed of after a visualinspection to insure that no document of interest was erroneouslyenclosed by the shareholder in the special proxy envelope.

When the front stripe detector 62 detects a stripe 14 on the front facealong the lower edge of the card, it causes the front deflection vane 66to move to deflect the card to a conventional multibelt feeding means 84which conveys the card to the feed means of a conventional card sortingand tabulating machine 86. When the rear stripe detector 64 detects astripe 14 on the rear face along the lower edge of the card, it causesthe rear deflection vane 68 to move to deflect the card to aconventional multibelt feeding means 88 comprising a multibelt androller system. The card is thereby passed to a first suction drum 90,having a perforated annulus and a weak suction, and rotating clockwise.The card is pulled off the first drum 90 by a second suction drum 92,having a perforated annulus and a strong suction, and rotatingclockwise. The card is pulled off the second drum 92 by a suction tube94 having a stronger suction and passes to an associated conventionalmultibelt feeding means 96. The card has thus been rotated end-for-endabout its short, vertical axis, and is conveyed to the feed means of themachine 86.

When neither the front detector 62 and the rear detector 64 detects thestripe 14, the card passes through the inverting means 70 to the sixthfeeding means 72. When the front detector 74 detects a stripe, it causesthe front vane 78 to move to deflect the card to a conventionalmultibelt feeding means 98 which passes the card to the feeding means ofthe machine 86. When the rear detector 76 detects a stripe, it causesthe rear vane to move to deflect the card to a conventional feedingmeans 88, which passes the card to the first drum 90, from whence itpasses to the second drum 92, being turned endfor-end thereby, andthence to the feeding means 96 and the feeding means of the machine 86.

The cards which reach the feeding means of the machine 86 are thus eachoriented with the stripe 14 on the front face along the lower edge ofthe card. The visual indicia 12 on the cards are automatically read andsorted by the machine 86 with respect to the corporation concerned, andare then tabulated.

The transfer agent now has a tabulation of the proxies for eachcorporation slate of nominees, and may send this tabulation and theassorted cards to the parties concerned. This result has beenaccomplished entirely automatically, without human intervention.

While the information has been shown as an apparatus for handling proxycards, it will be appreciated that it is equally applicable to thehandling of other types of documents, such as bank deposits made throughthe mail.

The invention has thus been described, but it is desired to beunderstood that it is not con-fined to the particular forms or usagesshown and described, the same being merely illustrative, and that theinvention may be carried out in other ways without departing from thespirit of the invention and, therefore, the right is broadly claimed toemploy all equivalent instrumentalities coming within the scope of theappendant claims, by means of which the objects of this invention areobtained and the new results are accomplished, as it is obvious that theparticular embodiment herein shown and described i only one of the manythat can be employed to obtain these objects and to accomplish theseresults.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for handling sealed envelopes, each such envelopeadapted to contain one or more documents and each such document havingan indicium, comprising:

means for receiving envelopes and serially conveying such envelopesalong a path to an envelope opening. station;

a first means disposed along said path for detecting an envelope havinga metallic enclosure and for diverting such envelope from said path;

a second means disposed along said path for detecting an envelope havinga thicknessgreater than a predetermined maximum and for diverting suchan envelope from said path;

an envelope opening means disposed at said opening station for receivingenvelopes which have passed said first and said second means and fordividing each received sealed envelope into a plurality of portions anderially passing on envelopes and documents, and

document feed means which include indicia detecting means, orientingmeans, and diverting means disposed for receiving the envelope portionsand documents from said opening means, for detecting said indicium onsuch documents, for orienting such documents with respect to saidindicium and for conveying such indicium bearing and oriented documentsto a further station, and for diverting that which has been receivedfrom said opening means and not bearing such indicium.

2. A system for handling a plurality of sealed envelopes;

each envelope containing one or more documents; each document withinsaid envelope having a first indicium for providing a referenceorientation to the document and second indicia bearing codesignificance; comprising:

means for receiving an envelope; opening means, coupled to saidreceiving means, for

receiving the envelope and opening the envelope;

feeding means associated with the opening means for serially feeding thedocuments and the envelope;

sensing, separating and orienting means coupled to said feeding meansfor receiving the documents and the envelope, for sensing the presenceof documents and envelopes, and in response to the sensing thereofseparating the documents from the envelope and diverting the envelopefrom the path of the documents, and for inspecting the documents for thefirst indicium and for orienting the documents in accordance With thefirst indicium; and

sorting and tabulating means, disposed to receive the orienteddocuments, for sorting the documents and for tabulating the same inresponse to the second indicia thereon.

3. A system according to claim 2 wherein each of the sealed envelopeshas an indicium providing a reference orientation to the envelope, andfurther including:

orienting means disposed to receive the sealed envelopes,

to inspect the envelopes for the associated indicium and to orient theenvelopes in accordance with said associated indicium.

4. A system for handling a plurality of sealed envelopes, each suchenvelope having a first indicium for providing a reference orientationto the envelope and containing one or more documents, each such documenthaving a second indicium for providing a reference orientation to suchdocument and third indicia having code significance, comprrsrng:

first means for receiving envelopes and for serially conveying theenvelopes along a path; means along said path for detecting an envelopehaving a metallic enclosure and for diverting such an envelope from saidpath; means along said path for detecting an envelope having a thicknessgreater than a predetermined maximum and for diverting such an envelopefrom said path; second means for receiving an envelope and for openingthe envelope; third means for receiving an envelope from said firstmeans and for detecting the first indicium on the envelope and forconveying such an envelope to said second means; and for rotating allother received envelopes; fourth means for receiving a rotated envelopefrom said third means and for detecting the first indicium on theenvelope and for conveying such an envelope to said second means, andfor diverting any other envelopes; said second means dividing eachsealed envelope into a plurality of portions and serially passing onenvelope portions and documents; sorting means; means for receivingenvelope portions and documents from said opening means, and fordetecting a second indicium, for orienting that which has been receivedhaving such an indicium according to such indicium and conveying thesame to said sorting means, and for diverting that which has beenreceived not having such an indicium; and said sorting means inspectingthe oriented documents for said third indicia and in response theretotabulating these documents.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS M. HENSON WOOD,JR., Primary Examiner.

ROBERT B. REEVES, Examiner.

R. A. SCHACHER, Assistant Examiner.

1. AN APPARATUS FOR HANDLING SEALED ENVELOPES, EACH SUCH ENVELOPEADAPTED TO CONTAIN ONE OR MORE DOCUMENTS AND EACH SUCH DOCUMENT HAVINGAN INDICIUM, COMPRISING: MEANS FOR RECEIVING ENVELOPES, AND SERIALLYCONVEYING SUCH ENVELOPES ALONG A PATH TO AN ENVELOPE OPENING STATION; AFIRST MEANS DISPOSED ALONG SAID PATH FOR DETECTING AN ENVELOPE HAVING AMETALLIC ENCLOSURE AND FOR DIVERTING SUCH ENVELOPE FROM SAID PATH; ASECOND MEANS DISPOSED ALONG SAID PATH FOR DETECTING AN ENVELOPE HAVING ATHICKNESS GREATER THAN A PREDETERMINED MAXIMUM AND FOR DIVERTING SUCH ANENVELOPE FROM SAID PATH; AN ENVELOPE OPENING MEANS DISPOSED AT SAIDOPENING STATION FOR RECEIVING ENVELOPES WHICH HAVE PASSED SAID FIRST ANDSAID SECOND MEANS AND FOR DIVIDING EACH RECEIVED SEALED ENVELOPE INTO APLURALITY OF PORTIONS AND SERIALLY PASSING ON ENVOLOPES AND DOCUMENTS,AND DOCUMENT FEED MEANS WHICH INCLUDE INDICIA DETECTING MEANS, ORIENTINGMEANS, AND DIVERTING MEANS DISPOSED FOR RECEIVING THE ENVELOPE PORTIONSAND DOCUMENTS FROM SAID OPENING MEANS, FOR DETECTING SAID INDICIUM ONSUCH DOCUMENTS, FOR ORIENTING SUCH DOCUMENTS WITH RESPECT TO SAIDINDICIUM AND FOR CONVEYING SUCH INDICIUM BEARING AND ORIENTED DOCUMENTSTO A FURTHER STATION, AND FOR DIVERTING THAT WHICH HAS BEEN RECEIVEDFROM SAID OPENING MEANS AND NOT BEARING SUCH INDICIUM.